Secondary Highway 503, commonly referred to as Highway 503, was a
provincially maintained secondary highway in the
Canadian province
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
of
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. The route existed between 1956 and 1998. Between 1956 and 1963, the highway stretched from
Kirkfield Kirkfield is a village located in the city of Kawartha Lakes, in the Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. The incorporated place, unincorporated village was named in 1864 after the initial name, ''Novar'', was rejected by the government. A list of ...
to
Sebright
The Sebright ( IPA: ) is a British breed of bantam chicken. It is a true bantam – a miniature bird with no corresponding large version – and is one of the oldest recorded British bantam breeds. It is named after Sir John Saunders Sebri ...
, and then along the
Monck Road
The colonization roads were created during the 1840s and 1850s to open up or provide access to areas in Central and Eastern Ontario for settlement and agricultural development. The colonization roads were used by settlers to lead them toward areas ...
from Sebright to
Kinmount
Kinmount is a village with a population of approximately 500, located on the Burnt River in Ontario, Canada. The village is apportioned by three municipalities, they are, City of Kawartha Lakes, Minden Hills and Trent Lakes. The village's hinte ...
, entirely within
Victoria County Victoria County is the name of several locations:
In Australia:
*Victoria County, Western Australia
* County of Victoria, South Australia
In Canada:
* Victoria County, New Brunswick
* Municipality of the County of Victoria and the eponymous histo ...
. In 1964, the route was extended to
Highway 121 in
Tory Hill
Mullinavat () is a town in south County Kilkenny, Ireland. Its main industries are tourism and agriculture. It has a renowned sporting history, particularly in hurling. The town's name in Irish translates as 'The Mill of the Stick' which, acc ...
along the route of Highway 500 through the counties of
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
and
Haliburton. In 1998, the route was transferred to the various counties in which it resided. Today it is known as Kawartha Lakes City Road 6 and 45, Peterborough County Road 503 and Haliburton County Road 503.
The route of former Highway 503 passes through several
unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to:
* Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality
* Unincorporated entity, a type of organization
* Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...
villages along its length, including
Sebright
The Sebright ( IPA: ) is a British breed of bantam chicken. It is a true bantam – a miniature bird with no corresponding large version – and is one of the oldest recorded British bantam breeds. It is named after Sir John Saunders Sebri ...
,
Uphill
Uphill is a village in the civil parish of Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, England, at the southern edge of the town, on the Bristol Channel coast.
History
Bone and stone tools found in caves at Uphill provide evidence of human activity i ...
,
Norland,
Dongola
Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...
,
Kinmount
Kinmount is a village with a population of approximately 500, located on the Burnt River in Ontario, Canada. The village is apportioned by three municipalities, they are, City of Kawartha Lakes, Minden Hills and Trent Lakes. The village's hinte ...
and
Gooderham, in addition to the villages at either terminus. Outside of those communities the route is generally forested, but provides access to recreational cottages surrounding the many lakes that dot the region.
Route description
![KL45 in Norland](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/KL45_in_Norland.png)
Highway 503 was a route that travelled through the counties of Victoria (now
Kawartha Lakes
The City of Kawartha Lakes (2021 population 79,247) is a unitary municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. It is a municipality legally structured as a single-tier city; however, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typical Ontario county and is mostl ...
), Peterborough and Haliburton. An addition to providing access to recreational cottages surrounding the many lakes surrounding the former highway, it connected the unincorporated communities of Kirkfield, Sebright, Uphill, Norland, Dongola, Kinmount, Gooderham and Tory Hill. The former highway is a paved two lane road throughout its length.
Beginning in Kirkfield, the former highway travels north as a continuation of Kawartha Lakes City Road 6, which it is designated as to Sebright. It passes beneath the
Kirkfield Lift Lock
The Kirkfield Lift Lock is a boat lift located in the city of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada, near the village of Kirkfield. It is designated "Lock 36" of the Trent–Severn Waterway, situated at the highest section of the canal (256.2 m). It i ...
, which carries the
Trent–Severn Waterway
The Trent–Severn Waterway is a canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, Kawartha Lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching an ...
between
Balsam Lake and
Canal Lake. Surrounded by the grasslands that thrive in the thin soils of the
Carden Alvar Provincial Park, it zig-zags northwest to Dalrymple before turning north along the Kawartha Lakes – Simcoe County boundary. It continues along the west side of
Lake Dalrymple to Sebright, where it intersects the
Monck Road
The colonization roads were created during the 1840s and 1850s to open up or provide access to areas in Central and Eastern Ontario for settlement and agricultural development. The colonization roads were used by settlers to lead them toward areas ...
.
The former highway turned east onto the Monck Road, which is now numbered as Road 45 in both Simcoe County and Kawartha Lakes. For the first several kilometres east of Sebright, the road travels through scattered farmland. It then descends from the
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...
limestone into the Precambrian
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...
and parallels the
Head River.
Meandering through thick
Boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...
, it reaches Uphill,
where it intersects the northern terminus of former
Highway 505.
Continuing eastward, it curves south to travel around the south side of
Head Lake, passing through the
village of the same name and turning east towards Norland.
In Norland, the former route of Highway 503 intersects Highway 35 and crosses the
Gull River. It then travels along the north side of
Shadow Lake before reaching the ghost town of Dongola. The route follows a straight line the majority of the distance between Dongola and Kinmount, where it encounters a former portion of Highway 121. Highway 503 and Highway 121 were
concurrent
Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to:
Law
* Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea''
* Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...
for a short distance across the
Burnt River. East of Kinmount the former route parallels the
Irondale River to Gooderham. It briefly enters Peterborough County before travelling along the Peterborough–Haliburton county line to
Furnace Falls, prior to which it turns north into Haliburton County.
Within Haliburton County, the former highway travels around the north side of
Irondale, curving east. It continues to meander alongside the Irondale River into Gooderham, intersecting the northern end of former
Highway 507. Gradually curving northeast, the former route diverges from the Irondale River towards Tory Hill.
There the route ended at an intersection with what was then
Highway 118, but has since become Highway 121.
Highway 121 west is the branching road at this intersection; eastbound traffic on former Highway 503 defaults onto Highway 121.
History
In 1956, thousands of kilometres of roads were assumed by the Department of Highways (DHO), predecessor to the modern
Ministry of Transportation
A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...
(MTO), as Secondary Highways. These routes were designated because they formed important links with more significant King's Highways.
On May 9, 1956, the DHO designated of roads between
Highway 46 in Kirkfield and Highway 121 in Kinmount, via Sebright and Norland, as Highway 503. Highway 500 was designated the same day between Bobcaygeon and east of
Bancroft via Kinmount; of it between Kinmount and Tory Hill would eventually become Highway 503.
[map1[map2
Between_Sebright_and_Tory_Hill,_the_highway_followed_the_historic_Monck_Road.html" ;"title="ap1">[map1[map2
Between Sebright and Tory Hill, the highway followed the historic Monck Road">Monck Colonization Road. It was paved through Norland as well as between west of Kinmount and Irondale, but was otherwise a gravel road in 1956. By 1958 it had been paved north of Kirkfield to modern Kawartha Lakes City Road 33 (Centennial Park Road) as well as east from Sebright.
The following year, Highway 500 was paved between Irondale and Tory Hill.
In 1961, a bypass to the north of Irondale opened, and Highway 503 was paved from east of Sebright to Uphill.
On March 1, 1964, several highways in the Haliburton and Bancroft area were renumbered in an effort to simplify the road network. Among the changes was renumbering Highway 500 between Kinmount and Tory Hill as part of Highway 503.
This brought it to its peak length of and established the route it would follow until it was decommissioned in the late 1990s. The remaining unpaved sections were south of Sebright, approximately east of Uphill, and approximately14 km between Norland and Kinmount. The latter two were paved between 1965 and 1969,
while the former was paved south of Dalrymple in 1972 and between Dalrymple and Sebright by 1977.
As part of a series of budget cuts initiated by premier Mike Harris under his Common Sense Revolution platform in 1995, numerous highways deemed to no longer be of significance to the provincial network were decommissioned and responsibility for the routes transferred to a lower level of government, a process referred to as downloading. The entire length of Highway 503 was downloaded in 1997 and 1998, making it the longest highway decommissioned entirely during the process.
On April 1, 1997, the eastern of the route, between White Boundary Road at the Peterborough–Haliburton county boundary and Tory Hill, was transferred to Haliburton County.
The remainder of the route was transferred to Victoria County and Peterborough County on January 1, 1998.
Within Peterborough and Haliburton counties, the former highway is designated as County Road 503. Victoria County was restructured as the city of Kawartha Lakes
The City of Kawartha Lakes (2021 population 79,247) is a unitary municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. It is a municipality legally structured as a single-tier city; however, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typical Ontario county and is mostl ...
on January 1, 2001;
the portion of the former highway within it is designated as City Road 6 between Kirkfield and Sebright, and as City Road 45 between Sebright and Kinmount.
Major intersections
References
{{Roads in Kawartha Lakes
503
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Year 503 ( DIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Volusianus and Dixicrates (or, less frequently, year 125 ...
503
__NOTOC__
Year 503 ( DIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Volusianus and Dixicrates (or, less frequently, year 125 ...